Haiti is eligible for debt relief under an Inter-national Monetary Fund program a fund official said.
The fund's executive board earlier this month, in a debt sustainability analysis, determined that the country was eligible for assistance, Takatoshi Kato, deputy managing director of the fund, said in a statement released Monday.
The release didn't say how much debt relief the country may receive.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has long suffered from oppression and instability and has been plagued by near-constant political turmoil for the past two decades.

The Caribbean country is struggling to recover from a bloody 2004 rebel uprising that toppled then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and pushed the country deeper into despair.

The board cited Haiti's "satisfactory track record" under an emergency assistance program from 2004-2006, said the statement.

"They welcomed the new government's commitment to policies aimed at sustaining macroeconomic stability and creating conditions for sustainable growth," Kato said of the IMF board.

The board members said that Haiti continues to face "daunting challenges, particularly in the areas of security, social conditions, and sustained income growth," according to Kato.

The directors encouraged Haiti to continue efforts "to enhance governance, strengthen public institutions, promote private-sector-led growth, and to orient public expenditure and the budget toward poverty-reducing activities".

Kato also called for continued macroeconomic, structural, and social reforms.

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Police and political groups linked to Haiti sex attacks.-More than 30,000 women and girls - half under the age of 18 - were raped in Haiti's capital city in the chaotic two years following the ousting of the country's democratically elected president, a survey has suggested. About 8,000 people were killed during the same period. Click here to read this article

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Haiti Gang Fails to Disarm.-Gang leaders in Haiti's largest slum said on Monday that they were putting disarmament plans on hold due to raids by UN peacekeepers on the streets they control. Read this article.

Annette Auguste.-Above all, Annette Auguste and her co-defendants deserve our thanks and praise for insisting on justice through the dark days of Haiti's brutal Interim Government, and the frustratingly slow transition to democracy Read this article

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Haiti's government threw down the gauntlet to the impoverished and violent Caribbean nation's armed gangs on Thursday, telling them to lay down their weapons or be killed. Click here to read this article.

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